Twenty-two years after her criticism of George W. Bush cost The Chicks their country radio foothold, Natalie Maines returned to the same subject with a sitting president as her target.
The Chicks have spent two decades living with the aftermath of a single sentence. At New York’s Beacon Theatre on October 12, Natalie Maines made clear she no longer treats that history as a reason for caution.
Midway through the band’s Taking the Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour stop, Maines revisited 2003, when she told a London audience the group was ashamed that the president came from Texas. The remark, made as the US moved toward invading Iraq, drew a backlash that pushed the band off country radio and out of the genre’s mainstream for years.
On stage, a montage of pundits and ordinary listeners reacting to that original controversy preceded her remarks. Maines said she would never yield to the “shut up and sing” demands placed on her, then contrasted the eras: of George W. Bush, she said she would now give him “a big wet kiss.” She thanked the Obamas for what she called their continuing work, and described the present White House as a “deranged nut job.”
The White House answered through Fox News, calling Maines a “despicable nobody” afflicted with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” It is not the year’s first exchange. In May, she used Instagram to criticize Trump’s effort to raise money for supporters and allies under investigation.
The anniversary tour runs into early November, with dates in Nashville, Austin and Los Angeles.
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The collective voice behind ROMBO Magazine’s news, reviews, features, and cultural coverage.
